Guest reviews Sandals Ochi Beach Resort

by littlejack2009 Marshall, Michigan

Sandals Ochi

Review of stay: Oct 26-Nov 2, 2019 Butlers: Julia and Patrick Arrival: We did wait a good 30 minutes once in the club lounge for Julia to come and get us, and take us to the room. When we got the room, nothing had been stocked. There was one bottle of red wine in the cabinet and the basics in the fridge. There was not a bottle of bubbles on ice which is typical of a Sandals arrival. Some treats waiting in room for our arrival, though not gluten free. Julia did the in room ipad check in and went through the room with us. We didn’t tell them where to book dinner ahead of time as we were meeting 2 other couples at Ochi and needed all dinner reservations to be together. We filled out the butler prefs on the paper sheet and gave it to Julia. My husband saw one of the Club guys delivering his request of Johnnie Walker Black and he asked about the other items and he said “I don’t know about anything other items, just this” He did mention most requests take 24 hours to fill. When we brought this up to Julia around dinner time, she said all in room requests take 24 hours to fill which is when I mentioned the butler prefs to Julia being sent in by our travel agent several times over the last 3 weeks and she said they never received them. Room: We stayed in the butler village, G1 room with pool. Overall, the room met our needs but they are very worn down and could use a face lift. The pool outside our room was fabulous and we loved using it. Julia drew the bath for us one time. Housekeeping did a great job at cleaning the room and towels stocked though sometimes it was done nearly 5 pm which we’d be in the room taking a nap or getting ready for dinner so we just took some clean towels and agreed it could be cleaned the next day. Everything was replenished as requested. On Sunday morning, we asked Julia to have the dive shop blow up our floats for the pool. She said it’s done by a tire shop down the street and they were closed so she couldn’t get it done until Monday. Patrick delivered them to us first thing Monday. Our housekeeper also decorated the room very nicely as well, though we never got her name. They used to leave cards on the credenza with the housekeeper name, which was always a great way to know who they are and give them due credit. Grounds: The grounds are huge. The hop ran often enough but it got tiring by the end of the week to have to take the bus everywhere. If we forgot something in the room, it seemed to take a good 30 minutes to have to go get it and return to the beach. The grounds were kept clean though and beautiful. I don’t know if anything ran after 11p but we didn’t see anything so we always had to walk up the hill if we stayed out late. Restaurants: Overall, eating GF in the restaurants for dinner was never a problem. The breakfast buffets didn’t have any GF breads or muffins out to grab. When I asked about them, I was told they need 24 hours’ notice. So I ended up eating fruit and bacon for breakfast at the buffets. We ordered room service for breakfast most of the time. We did the buffet at Southern Table once, the one down by the beach once and Le Jardinière once. We tried to put in a room service order with Julia Thursday evening for the next morning. I typically have steak and hash browns. I had given her our orders written down on paper and had for a 7 am delivery written at the top, to which after going through all the order with her, she asks what time and I say 7 am and then she tells us that Le Jardinière doesn’t open until 8 am so I can’t have my order until 8 am. We had spa appointments the next morning at 8 am (which she knew) which was the whole point of having breakfast delivered early. I was so frustrated at that point and asked her what my options were and she suggested pancakes, so I said sure that’s fine. The pancakes were terrible and had the consistency of rubber. I couldn’t eat them. All of our dinners were very good with the exception of Kelly’s. It was a Monday night, which we knew reservations were tough as we were rearranging from another night. We waited probably 45 minutes to get seated – Patrick and Debbie were beyond fantastic at helping to get a table for all of us to sit at / near each other. They were helping to bus tables in the interim. However, the food was a letdown at Kelly’s overall. We loved the Rabbit Hole, the movies around the resort and the general amount of activities to do. Misc: We arranged a sunset cruise with the dive shop for all 6 of us. The dive shop must not do many of these because initially we were told it doesn’t include food and drinks but the paperwork offering it, says it does. They did provide food and drinks after we had to point out that info and it was really an amazing time out on the dive boat! The 2 members of the dive crew were great fun and we really enjoyed their company. Spa treatments were amazing, as usual. We always love our time at the spa! We rented a beach cabana one day. Excellent service!!! It was the first time we’d done that and both of us really enjoyed it. The bottle of wine and the 15 minute massage were fabulous touches to be included in the price! I think the cabana butler’s name was Richardo? Patrick was fantastic throughout the week and really made sure we had whatever we asked for and left lots of surprises throughout the week. He was funny and easy to get along with. I wish I could say the same for Julia. Half way through the trip I thought things were getting better with her but then the snafu with the breakfast room service happened and I kind of gave up on it. She did leave the bed decorated nicely on her evening shifts. Julia refused to deliver my special request of GF coconut shrimp to me unless I was in the room or by myself in a cabana. The first day, I was in the Manor pool when she brought them and she would not give them to us there. I had to get out of the pool and go sit by myself to eat them. Patrick delivered my special request of GF coconut shrimp daily, wherever we were at. My husband called on Sunday morning to ask for a cooler and Julia told him it will be several hours as she needed to get the champagne out of the locker and chill it. We didn’t know that we needed to ask for a cooler at Ochi. We knew we needed to get our own chairs but I don’t remember reading about the cooler. We ended up talking to Julie, the butler manager, on Sunday as there were just too many inconsistencies in what we were getting told from Julia in comparison to other Sandals resorts experiences. Julie tried to tell us that Ochi isn’t like Royal Caribbean where we spent most of our trips and I quickly corrected her in saying that we’ve stayed at the majority of the Sandals and nearly all stays are butler level, and they do it differently than any other Sandals all together. Julie did confess that they did receive our butler preferences but they were out of one item…. But I’m not sure why that meant they couldn’t fill the rest of the requests. We talked about the coconut shrimp and she reiterated what Julia told us, that they didn’t want other guests to get offended or start getting an abundance of requests of the kitchen for coconut shrimp. It was Julie’s idea that they be delivered to a cabana, at “no extra charge”. We went over the rest of the concerns and came to an agreement on what would be done. It just seemed that anything we asked for from Julia was met with resistance – everything will take 24 hours to get out of the locker or anything special needed a 24 hour notice. We did not get that with Patrick. Julia asked every day that she was on, if we liked certain things that she did and sometimes would ask multiple times about the same thing. I can see asking to find out what we like but asking multiple times about the same thing, got to be too much. She tried to call out my husband for not answering the cell phone one night – at dinner in front of our 4 friends – and my husband pulled the phone out of his pocket to show her we had it. We were having issues with the phone not ringing so many times we wouldn’t see that anyone called us until we looked at the phone and saw a missed call and we would call back right away. One of the other couples we traveled with had an excellent butler team. Their room had their liquor preferences in the room upon arrival. Debbie and Gelliem (spelling) were fantastic at taking care of them – and us. In general, all of the staff we encountered were friendly and smiling. The playmakers kept the crowd entertained. Overall, we would not return to Ochi to stay. We would stay at RP next door and come over for dinner occasionally. It was too big overall and we didn’t like having the two “separate” resorts to go back and forth to. The differences in the butler service is also something that turned us off – perhaps it was only Julia’s take on it as the experience we received from Patrick was like anywhere else we have gone.

by DanaB706 New York City, New York

NOT GLUTEN SAFE & TRANSPORT UNRELIABLE

I will preface this review with i reached out to customer service the day after arriving home and was told i would be contacted back once the investigation was complete. I was never contacted back even after following up so now i have to warn other Celiac Guests! Even if the resolution was there is no resolution i should have been contacted! Overall great trip and resort with 2 very large issues that would prevent me from returning! The first issue occurred with the alternate location that was offered for our candle light Dinner. I understand there was a threat of rain and there was a need to move us however there was not a need to move us to a completely covered non ocean view location next to a bathroom and in the non private entrance to the Kimonos restaurant. Other guests that night were moved to the pier and tower in front of the beach. It was not only wildly unromantic (the point of having this dinner) but it was also extremely hot as it is covered by walls on three sides allowing no air flow (one of those sides is a public bathroom!) They were able to get us moved to a more appropriate location however this was a very upsetting process and not the point of having a candlelight dinner. Once situated in our new location which was on the beach with an umbrella stand in case the rain did come our food came out and i confirmed with the waiter that my food was marked gluten free he showed me his paper work that showed him it was. Upon receiving my steak i noticed these three fried balls and the thought crossed my mind that those might not be gluten free but after confirming with the waiter he ensured me it was. I ate them and within 30 minutes realized my mistake the lips began to swell and tingle which is my first sign of a gluten reaction. We had to race back to the room where i took 3 benadryl and drank 3 bottles of water hoping to avoid seeing the inside of a jamaican hospital. The reaction passed but the remnants of stomach upsetment and swollen taste buds lasted until this morning 2 days later. I spoke with a safety manager the next day however he never got back to me which he promised to do before i left the following day. He said because i didn't call the nurse that night there wasn't much he could do there wasn't much i wanted him to do but to learn from it as it is not a game. The Sandals Club employees that took our order for the candle light dinner marked it very clearly and high lighted it that i was gluten free and which foods needed to be prepared that way. This ball was dropped somewhere within the culinary team. The next issue occurred on our transfer to the airport. Our transfer was booked rather close to our flight 12 pm pick up for a 345 departure. With the resort about 1.40min from from the airport it would have gotten us there at exactly 2 hours before the flight. Normally this would be fine. However our transfer RAN OUT OF GAS along the way. Literally ran out of gas on the side of the road stranded! Our driver gave us two choices he could LEAVE US and go get gas on foot or call for another transfer. We opted for the safer option of having him stay with us on the side of the road. A new van arrived in about 20 minutes but it was extremely stressful we had to get out of the van on the side of the road transfer to the other van and have our luggage transferred over. Mind you we were sitting in an off van for 20 minutes with no air conditioning water etc. There really is no excuse for this. Sandals is a professional company the transfer companies they contract should also be professional and not run out of gas! I have attached pictures as proof. The driver told us "i thought i could make it" and to his benefit we nearly did we were about 5 minutes from the airport when this happened. But with guests on board and given the crime issues in Jamaica this shouldn't be happening gas should be full before each trip. There was no one to meet our van and a guest had to help the new driver unload the heavy luggage's from the van which they were kind enough to do but by no means was their responsibility. We all had to run to check in and make flights. We were first class and had club mobay so we were much better off then the others and we barely made it. only had time to grab a drink and some food to eat on the plane as we boarded at 305pm really not the end to a overall great vacation that we wanted.

by AnnaMM738 Toronto, Canada

Truly the way to vacation

This was my first time at a Sandals. The resort is beautiful with great decor and is very well kept. While the property is large, the bus transportation makes it extremely quick and easy to get to where you need to be. The rooms were extremely clean and comfortable. The villa we stayed it was like a home away from home and I slept well, which isn't the norm for me on vacation. Meals were amazing, and the choices fantastic. It was nice not going for a buffet every meal like at most inclusive resorts. However, the best part of the trip was the staff. I felt pampered the whole time I was there and it was truly the most relaxing, and most romantic, trip I've ever been on. Will definitely go back to this particular resort, and will most definitely be going to another Sandals location soon.

by Departure776068

Hotel

Amazing Caribbean island the best off the Caribbean Islands I've stayed on, loads to do very very safe place locals really lovely, loads to do and the beaches out off this world, I would return back to Jamaica in a heartbeat only I'm for a cruise next around Asia and Singapore.

by Goochymane

Great Service, Great People

We stayed for 4 nights last week and had a great time. Wind and waves kept us from being able to do any of the boat excursions or watersports but we still had a blast. All of the staff were extremely helpful and went out of their way to help. The beds were very comfortable and from what I can recall the food was good. I do have to shout out to the staff that went the extra mile and made going back to Ochi worth it: Maxine, Kimone, Alexander, Kera, Samantha, Basil, Everton, Shaneka, Carlos, Melvin, and Rojay thanks for all the help and showing us a good time.